Kotaku has a hands-on preview of the Steam Big Picture Mode, which will launch as a beta today. They discuss what this first step will and will not mean to PC and console gaming, and offer Valve's thoughts on how this may or may not lead to development of a dedicated Steam set-top box. Here's what they say to expect: "Here are the basics: this afternoon, when Big Picture goes live, you'll be able to push a button and turn Steam into an entirely new interface. It sort of looks like the dashboard on an Xbox 360, minus the advertisements and other clutter that can make that system so irritating to navigate. And it allows you to do almost everything you can do on vanilla Steam: you can buy games, browse the web, and even chat with your friends using the platform's standard in-game overlay." They also have this trailer showing what the new mode looks like.

Beamer wrote on Sep 11, 2012, 16:56:while CS:S is technically a team game it's really more a shoot-some-guys-but-not-others game.

Kind of like original HL:TDM. Man, I played a ton of that, always on my own team. It was fun being one guy in a 24 person game, most teams having 3-5 people, and still winning.

Then you must not have ever played with a really good team of people or against a really good team on the other side. CS is very much a team game

Back when I was playing CS (not CS:S) I still had people I played regularly with. Occasionally we'd get a good 5x5 game, but we were in different places and this was before it had voice, so coordination wasn't simple. When I went fully solo I tended to find one or two people that wanted to be a team and we'd stick together, but even then it was limited to mostly instinct and just trying to be a team rather than communication.

But CS allows that. Unless the other team is well organized, and typically it isn't, all you need is to stick together. And, if you're good and the other team isn't, you can lone-wolf it very well.

TF2 you can't. Maybe because I put a total of maybe 1.5 hours into it, but I never managed to do very well. As opposed to TFC, in which I have plenty of memories of stealing the flag on my own as a spy or a heavy (hahaha, man, stealing the flag as a heavy was always great. If the other team had no organization you could waltz right in.)

TF2 felt like guaranteed death if you played alone. CS:S you can still dominate. This is why I much prefer games with either no or limited class structure to games where classes are dependent upon each other - finding a random server with random people and playing together well isn't possible.

On the other side, due to the prevelance of headphones on XBL, I managed to find dozens of people to add to my friends list in MW3 that were vocal in playing together. It wasn't much of a team game, either, even more "shoot-some-but-not-all" than CS, but if you had people that were all pretty good and complimented each other well you could go on ridiculous runs. Part of it was just they way they spawned, so the team that wasn't dying would be constantly moving, even if not together, and know there was no one behind them, whereas the team constantly spawning had no clue where anything was coming from, no orientation, and would usually get killed before they got some kind of groove.

Beamer wrote on Sep 11, 2012, 07:31:Even more important, all those people are still there and still want to make games. Do you think Erik Wolpaw, Mark Laidlaw, Robin Walker and Jess Cliffe are sitting around working on Big Screen Mode?

Well, who knows what they are ACTUALLY doing, but I assume at least a few of the people you listed are just sitting around, laughing maniacally as they roll in piles of money earned from poor saps buying TF2 hats. There's no telling if any of them have the desire or willpower to work on another game, really. How much would your mindset change if you can just sit around making millions of dollars from Steam itself, let alone nonsense like TF2 items?

I'd like to see a break down of who actually did what for the various absorbed mods turned games, aka Left 4 Dead, Portal Series, etc. Obviously Valve's art/sound people had a lot of work to do, but coding, design? It'd be interesting at the very least.

I haven't played TF2 since the hats came. In fact, I likely last touched it within 6 months of The Orange Box coming out. Much like how CS replaced my playing of TFC, CS:S got infinitely more time out of me than TF2. Team games just aren't much fun if you don't have at least one other person to play with, and while CS:S is technically a team game it's really more a shoot-some-guys-but-not-others game.

Kind of like original HL:TDM. Man, I played a ton of that, always on my own team. It was fun being one guy in a 24 person game, most teams having 3-5 people, and still winning.

Beamer wrote on Sep 11, 2012, 07:31:Even more important, all those people are still there and still want to make games. Do you think Erik Wolpaw, Mark Laidlaw, Robin Walker and Jess Cliffe are sitting around working on Big Screen Mode?

Well, who knows what they are ACTUALLY doing, but I assume at least a few of the people you listed are just sitting around, laughing maniacally as they roll in piles of money earned from poor saps buying TF2 hats. There's no telling if any of them have the desire or willpower to work on another game, really. How much would your mindset change if you can just sit around making millions of dollars from Steam itself, let alone nonsense like TF2 items?

I'd like to see a break down of who actually did what for the various absorbed mods turned games, aka Left 4 Dead, Portal Series, etc. Obviously Valve's art/sound people had a lot of work to do, but coding, design? It'd be interesting at the very least.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Sep 10, 2012, 22:47:Unfortunately all the money is in Big Picture. It wouldn't surprise me if Valve never makes another real game. No, Portal 2, DoTA 2 don't count, those are games they absorbed, Borg style, complete with some/all of the original developers.

I'd say it does count, considering most of their people did the heavy lifting, not the people they borged.

Even more important, all those people are still there and still want to make games. Do you think Erik Wolpaw, Mark Laidlaw, Robin Walker and Jess Cliffe are sitting around working on Big Screen Mode?

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Sep 10, 2012, 22:47:This looks nice, I'm sure they will make a few billion off of it, but I'd rather see them do a ridiculously good Half Life 3 then this sort of console war stuff.

Unfortunately all the money is in Big Picture. It wouldn't surprise me if Valve never makes another real game.

This looks nice, I'm sure they will make a few billion off of it, but I'd rather see them do a ridiculously good Half Life 3 then this sort of console war stuff.

Unfortunately all the money is in Big Picture. It wouldn't surprise me if Valve never makes another real game. No, Portal 2, DoTA 2 don't count, those are games they absorbed, Borg style, complete with some/all of the original developers.

Also TF2 is an insult to QWTF, no matter how delicious the cgi movies are.

HorrorScope wrote on Sep 10, 2012, 18:14:Wow another way to find the execute game button to run a game. Something that I can do easily for 5 seconds, then play the game the same way for the next 5 hours. Like it really matters. I will say it looks nice, but it's putting a pretty face on a very small issue.

Just because YOU won't find this very useful, doesn't mean everyone else is in your identical situation and also won't find it useful.

Don't ever turn on big picture mode, and you will never have to bother about the new interface. For anyone who might find it useful, isn't it good for them to have the option of using it?

FTR: this is going to sound awful. I go out at least a little most days, though, I am not bed-ridden. That's just the only convenient place I currently have to spend most of my "nothing to do" time.

Huh. I'm really impressed. I don't even have a living room, but I think this might be useful to me. If I'm laying in bed, I don't necessarily want the laptop on me; it gets too warm, and is cumbersome to move around when I need to flop to some other position so my back/neck doesn't throw a fit. Laying on my belly works, but then typing is a strain, and it's not good for my neck.

With this, I can have the lappy on a chair next to the bed without needing to stress myself reaching over to type on it. The "first-person browser" idea means that might even be useful when I'm not playing games. Neat.

Wow another way to find the execute game button to run a game. Something that I can do easily for 5 seconds, then play the game the same way for the next 5 hours. Like it really matters. I will say it looks nice, but it's putting a pretty face on a very small issue.

Wesp5 wrote on Sep 10, 2012, 15:08:So basically this is just a console controller interface for Steam, again showing where Valve places their priorities. Didn't they made some cool AAA games in the past? I can't remember anything lately but mod-ports...

Portal 2 came out last year. It's not like they crank out releases every 2 months...

Plus TF2 continues to get updates, DOTA 2 is out of beta soon, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive just came out.

Now if you want to talk Half Life then yeah I can understand that pain.

Wesp5 wrote on Sep 10, 2012, 15:08:So basically this is just a console controller interface for Steam, again showing where Valve places their priorities. Didn't they made some cool AAA games in the past? I can't remember anything lately but mod-ports...

Portal 2 came out last year. It's not like they crank out releases every 2 months...

So basically this is just a console controller interface for Steam, again showing where Valve places their priorities. Didn't they made some cool AAA games in the past? I can't remember anything lately but mod-ports...

Riker wrote on Sep 10, 2012, 13:25:I mentioned this in yesterday's thread, but I'm planning on trying this out using AirParrot ($10, airparrot.com) with my Apple TV, and an Xbox 360 wireless controller for Windows.